Baseball Uses Late Rally to Beat Penn State

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Rutgers baseball used a late rally on Saturday afternoon to beat Penn State by a score of 7-1 at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

The Scarlet Knights (27-22, 5-15) were down 1-0 late, but scored seven runs in the top of the eighth to defeat the Nittany Lions (22-22, 8-12) and even the series.

While Penn State was able to push across an unearned run in bottom of the first, RU starter Donovan Zsak worked around it and delivered the best outing of his career.

Making just his third career start, Zsak doubled his career high with six innings, allowing just one unearned run on two hits, striking out three with two walks.

PSU starter Jaden Henline matched Zsak's strong outing, pitching seven scoreless frames to keep the Scarlet Knights at bay.

After the Nittany Lions made a pitching change in the eighth, the Rutgers offense exploded for seven runs to flip the game.

With two men on, Tony Santa Maria doubled into right field to tie the game at 1-1. Scotty Young walked to load the bases and Pete Durocher singled into left to score a pair and make it 3-1. Trevor Cohen followed with a two-run triple to make it 5-1. Jackson Natili pinch-hit and delivered a bunt single on a suicide squeeze play to score Cohen. Josh Kuroda-Grauer put the final touches on the inning with an RBI single to give RU a 7-1 advantage.

Jordan Falco closed out the victory on the mound and earned the win after relieving Zsak in the seventh. Falco pitched three scoreless innings, yielding three hits and striking out two with no walks.

The rubber game between Rutgers and Penn State is set for 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.